Galleries and museums
10 million Canadians visited an art gallery in 2010 (or 35.7% of the population). This figure grew from 19.6% in 1992 and 26.7% in 2005. Nearly one-half of all Canadians (47.8% or 13.4 million) visited a museum in 2010.

Reading
As a leisure activity (not paid work or studies), 82% of the population read a magazine and 75.7% read at least one book.

Performing arts
60.4% of the population (16.9 million Canadians) attended at least one theatre, popular music, or classical music performance and nearly one-half (47.9%) of Canadians attended a attended a cultural festival or other performing arts event.

Film
67.9% of Canadians went to a film or drive-in at least once in 2010 and 79.1% or 22.2 million Canadians watched a video.

Recorded music
75.8% of Canadians listened to recorded music on CD (or other support) while 50.9% listened to downloaded music.

In comparison, this $27.4 billion is greater than the combined spending of consumers on hotels, motels and other travel accommodation-

Canadians currently spend more than double on the performing arts than they spend on sports events.

Consumer spending on culture is three times larger than the $9.2 billion spent on culture by all levels of government in 2007/08.

For details on cultural spending, here are the main categories of expenditure:

Home-based entertainment: $15.4 billion (56 % of total)

Reading materials: $4.8 billion (18 %)

Art works and events: $3.1 billion (11 %)

Photographic materials and services: $1.8 billion (6 %)

Movie tickets: $1.2 billion (4 %)

Art supplies and musical instruments: $1.1 billion (4 %)

Cultural spending per capita varies significantly between the provinces and is highest in Alberta ($963) and Saskatchewan ($905). The five western-most provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario) have per capita levels of cultural spending that are above the Canadian average ($841).

Alberta saw the greatest growth in consumer spending, both on cultural goods and services and other products and services.

Among 12 metropolitan areas, Calgary and Saskatoon have the highest per capita consumer spending on cultural goods and services.

All categories combined, the arts sector comprises 140,000 people. If we look at the cultural sector as a whole (including, for example, bookstores and architects), the number rises to 609,000 people, or 3.3% of the active population of Canada. By way of comparison, 257,000 people are employed by Canadian banks.

Revenue
According to the same study, workers in the artistic sector (in the nine categories mentioned above) earn an average of $22,700 annually. Since the average salary of all of the active population is $36,300, the average gap is 37%.

This difference is further accentuated when we look at the annual median salaryaccording to the Hill Strategies study,

« The median is a measure of the earnings of a “typical” worker in various occupations. Half of individuals have earnings that are less than the median value, while the other half has earnings greater than the median. The median is less influenced than the average (or “mean”) by extreme highs or lows, such as a few individuals reporting very large incomes. As a consequence, median earnings are typically lower than average earnings.

Median revenue in Canada is $26,900 while the median revenue of arts professionals is $12,900 (a gap of 52%). Median income is so low that it is lower by 36% than the low income cut-off (LICO) figure of $20,800. Within the nine arts professions, producers/directors/choreographers have the highest median income ($43,776) while visual artists ($13,976) and dancers ($13,167) have the lowest.

Women represent 53% of arts professionals, but their average income ($19,200) is lower by 28% than that of men ($26,700).

Immigrant artists earn an average salary of $20,877, visible minority artists $18,796 and Aboriginal artists $15,883. The average income of Aboriginal artists is lower by 30% than that of artists overall, and 39% lower than the active Aboriginal population of Canada.

Volunteering
According to the study Caring Canadians, Involved Canadians, (Statistics Canada, June 2009), 3% of the population is involved in volunteer work in arts organizations. Arts volunteers work an average of 107 hours annually.

The study adds that “Organizations with an operating budget of under $1,000,000 (making up 75% of the respondents of the study) are working with very limited resources, helping to explain why one of the most commonly stated organizational challenges in the study was understaffing combined with overwork.

The Conference Board estimates that the economic contribution of the cultural sector is $46 billion annually, which represents 3.8% of the total GDP.

The amount of the GDP increases considerably when we look at indirect effects (for example, the costs of building a theatre) and the later round effects (expenses and investments of the earnings of employees and owners in the cultural sector) of cultural activity. Taking into account indirect and later round effects, the Conference Board estimates that the economic print of the cultural sector is actually $84.6 billion or 7.4% of the Canadian GDP.

This multiplying effect in the cultural sector means that for each dollar produced by the sector, $1.84 is added to the GDP.

Again, according to the Conference Board, in 2007 the cultural sector produced $25 billion in taxes for the three levels of government. This figure is three times higher than government spending on culture that year ($8.2 billion).

Canada continues to post a trade deficit in cultural goods and services of approximately $2 billion (imports in culture stand at $7 billion).

Cultural tourism

The most recent Statistics Canada data in cultural tourism spending date back to Canadian Culture in Perspective (2000). At the time, tourists in Canada spent $760 million on cultural activities. Of this number, the national demand represents $202 million while American tourists spent $400 million and the balance of foreign tourist made up $157 million.

The American organization the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (source) paints the following portrait of the cultural tourist:

Spends more;

Travels longer;

More likely to spend more than $1000 during travels;

30% of cultural tourists choose their destination on the basis of a specific cultural event.

In his paper Venues and Settings, and the Roles they Play in Shaping Patterns of Arts Participation Alan Brown talks about how different and varied settings can have a profound impact on arts participation. Artists and arts organizations are choosing to create and present art in a wider range of settings and venues that both animate the art and capture the imagination of audiences in new ways.

A 2010 study from Australian Government on Arts Participation provides insights on the attitudes and values that influence our creative participation. An overwhelming 93% of Australians have participated in the arts and 91% agree that arts should be an important part of the education of every Australian.